Philips, Ambrose

, an English poet, was descended
from an ancient family in Leicestershire, and educated at
St. John’s-college, in Cambridge, where he took his degrees of A.B. in 1696, and A.M. in 1700, at which time he
obtained a fellowship. ' While at college also he is supposed to have written his “Pastorals,” which involved him
so seriously with the wits and critics of the age. When
he quitted the university, and repaired to the metropolis,
he became, as Jacob expresses himself, “one of the wits
at Button’s; n and there contracted an acquaintance with
the gentlemen of the belles lettres, who frequented it. Sir
Richard Steele was his particular friend, and inserted in
his Tatler, N. 12, a little poem of his, called” A Winter
Piece,“dated from Copenhagen, the 9th of May, 1709,
and addressed to the earl of Dorset. Sir Richard thus
mentions it with honour:” This is as fine a piece as we
ever had from any of the schools of the most learned painters. Such images as these give us a new pleasure in our
sight, and fix upon our minds traces of reflection, which
accompany us wherever the like objects occur.“Pope,
too, who had a confirmed aversion to Philips, while he
affected to despise his other works, always excepted this
out of the number, and mentioned it as the production of
a man” who could write very nobly."

Steele was also an admirer of Philips’s “Pastorals,”
which had then obtained a great number of readers; and
was about to form a critical comparison of Pope’s Pastorals
with those of Philips, with a view of giving the preference
to the latter. Pope, apprized of Steele’s design, and always jealous of his own reputation, contrived the most
artful method to defeat it; vvhiqh was, by writing a paper
for the Guardian, No. 40, after several others had been
employed there on pastoral poetry, upon the merits. of
Philips and himself; and so ordering it, as that himself
was found the better versifier, while Philips was preferred
as the best Arcadian. Upon the publication of this paper,
the enemies of Pope exulted to see him placed below
Philips in a species of poetry upon which he was supposed
to value himself; but were extremely mortified soon after
| to find that Pope himself was the real author of the paper,
and that the whole criticism was an irony. The next work
Philips published, according to the common account, was
“The Life of John Williams, Lord Keeper of the Great
Seal, Bishop of Lincoln, and Archbishop of York, in the
reigns of James and Charles I.” He is supposed to have
undertaken this, for the sake of making known his political
principles, which were those of the Whigs. But we doubt
whether this, which was published in 1700, was not prior
to the publication of his pastorals.

In the mean time, he fell under the severe displeasure
of Pope, who satirized him with his usual keenness. It
was said he used to mention Pope as an enemy to the government; and it is certain that the revenge which Pope
took upon him for this abuse, greatly ruffled his temper.
Philips was not Pope’s match in satirical attack, and therefore had recourse to another weapon, for he stuck up a
rod at Button’s coffee house, with which he threatened to
chastise his antagonist whenever he should meet him. But
Pope prudently declined going to a place where he must
have felt the resentment of an enraged author, as much superior to him in bodily strength, as inferior in genius and
skill in versifying.

Besides Pope, there were some other writers who have
written in burlesque of Philips’s poetry, which was singular in its manner, and not difficult to imitate; particularly Mr. Henry Carey, who by some lines in Philips’s style,
and which were once thought to be dean Swift’s, fixed on
that author the name of Namby Pamby. Isaac Hawkins
Browne also imitated him in his Pipe of Tobacco. This,
however, is written with great good humour, and though
intended to burlesque, is by no means designed to ridicule
Philips, he having made the same trial of skill on Swift,
Pope, Thomson, Young, and Gibber. As a dramatic
writer, Philips has certainly considerable merit, and one
of his plays long retained its popularity. This was “The
Distressed Mother,” from the French of Racine, acted in
1711. The others were, “The Briton,” a tragedy, acted
in 1721; and “Humfrey Duke of Gloucester,” acted also
in 1721. The “Distrest Mother” was concluded with
the most successful Epilogue, written by Budgell, that
was spoken in tin: English theatre. It was also highly
praised in the “Spectator.”
| Philips’s circumstances were in general, through his life,
not only easy, but rather affluent, in consequence of his
being connected, by his political principles, with persons of
great rank and consequence. He was concerned with Dr.
Hugh Boulter, afterwards archbishop of Armagh, the right
honourable Richard West, lord chancellor of Ireland, the
rev. Mr. Gilbert Burnet, and the rev. Mr. Henry Stevens,
in writing a series of Papers, many of them very excellent,
called “The Free Thinker,” which were all published together by Philips, in 3 vols. 8vo. In the latter part of
queen Anne’s reign, he was secretary to the Hanover club,
a set of noblemen and gentlemen who had formed an association in honour of that succession, and for the support of
its interests; and who used particularly to distinguish in
their toasts such of the fair sex as were most zealously attached to the illustrious house of Brunswick. Mr. Philips’s
station in this club, together with the zeal shewn in his
writings, recommending him to the notice and favour of
the new government, he was, soon after the accession of
king George I. put into the commission of the peace, and
in 1717, appointed one of the commissioners of the lottery.
On his friend Dr. Boulter’s being made primate of Ireland,
he accompanied that prelate, and in Sept. 1734, was appointed registrar of the prerogative court at Dublin, had
other considerable preferments bestowed on him, and was
elected a member of the house of commons there, as representative for the county of Armagh. At length, having
purchased an annuity for life, of 400l. per annum, became
over to England sorne time in 1748, but did not long enjoy his fortune, being struck with a palsy, of which he
died June 18, 1749, in his seventy -eighth year, at his
house in Hanover-street; and was buried in Audley chapel.
“Of his personal character,” says Dr. Johnson, “all I have
heard is, that he was eminent for bravery and skill in the
sword, and that in conversation he was somewhat solemn
and pompous.” He is somewhere called Qunker Philips,
for what does not appear. Paul Whitehead relates, that
when Mr. Addison was secretary of state, Philips applied
to him for some preferment, but was coolly answered,
“that it was thought that he was already provided for, by
being made a justice for Westminster.” To this observar
tion our author with some indignation replied, “Though
poetry was a trade he could not live by, yet he scorned to
owe subsistence to another which he ought not to live by.”
| “Among his poems,” says Dr. Johnson, the * Letter
from Denmark,‘ may be justly praised; the Pastorals,’
which by the writer of the Guardian were ranked as one of
the four genuine productions of the rustic muse, cannot
surely he despicable. That they exhibit a mode of life
which did not exist, nor ever existed, is not to be objected; the supposition of such a state is allowed to Pastoral. In his other poems he cannot be denied the praise
of lines sometimes elegant; but he has seldom much force,
or much comprehension. The pieces that please best are
those which, from Pope and Pope’s adherents, procured
him the name of Namby Pamby, the poems of short lines,
by which he paid his court to all ages and characters, from
Walpole, the “steerer of the realm,” to Miss Pulteney in
the nursery. The numbers are smooth and sprightly, and
the diction is seldom faulty. They are not loaded with
much thought, yet, if they had been written by Addison,
they would have had admirers: little things are not valued
but when they are done by those who can do greater. In
his translations from Pindar he found the art of reaching
all the obscurity of the Theban bard, however he may fall
below his sublimity; he will be allowed, if he has less fire,
to have more smoke. He has added nothing to English
poetry, yet at least half his book deserves to be read: perhaps he valued most himself that part which the critick
would reject." 1

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